Daily Pulse: So THAT’S Why Men Fall Asleep After Sex

Nope, it’s not your less-than-stimulating pillow talk that sends men into dreamland post-coital. A new study in the journal Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews says it’s more about biology. Apparently after an orgasm, men tend to experience decreased activity in the prefrontal cortex—the region of the brain most commonly associated with processing information and responding appropriately. Then two other brain areas direct him to disengage from sexual thoughts, while at the same time, sleep-inducing oxytocin and serotonin flood his brain.

If your baby wasn’t exactly planned, you’ve got company. A new government study shows that more than 37% of US pregnancies in 2006 to 2010 were unintended. Researchers say that women who become pregnant unintentionally have higher rates of delaying prenatal care, smoking during pregnancy, and not breast-feeding. Among married women, 23.4% of births were unintended, as were half of births to unmarried women living with a partner were unintended.

One pill with the potential to treat conditions including Alzheimer’s disease, multiple sclerosis, and strokes has been unveiled by scientists—and if given early enough, it may even be able to stop full-blown Alzheimer’s from taking hold, according to new research published in the Journal of Neuroscience. The medication works by dampening down the inflammation thought to be at least partly to blame for many degenerative brain conditions. Animal tests have been encouraging and the medication has been given to humans for the first time, although the results have yet to be released.

A new article in the journal Psychological Science reports that memory can be boosted by taking a brief “wakeful rest” after learning something new. Older adults were shown to better remember short stories by practicing wakeful resting—sitting quietly with their eyes closed in a darkened room for 10 minutes. It didn’t matter what happened when their eyes were closed—they could daydream or go through their grocery lists, for example—the key was that they were undistracted by anything else and not receiving new information.

A lack of upper-body strength may be why female athletes are more likely get hurt than males, according to a new study that looked at NCAA basketball, volleyball, and ice hockey athletes. After comparing the athletes’ preseason fitness scores and their rates of injury, researchers found that those who scored low on a pushup test were more likely to suffer an injury. Women should work to increase their upper-body endurance to up their chances for avoiding injury, say researchers.

Researchers at Ohio State University have found that some types of multitasking—doing two visual tasks at once—fare worse than doing a visual and an audio taks at the same time. People who had two visual tasks spent less time on any individual task, and that their eyes moved a lot more. So what does this mean for you? When it comes to driving, it’s safer to focus on audio cues rather than visual ones from the GPS. And whatever you do, don’t even think about texting behind the wheel.

When technology and fitness intersect, it can be a beautiful thing. Case in point: The new video-service Wello that offers one-on-one personal training via the Web. For about $40 an hour, you can work out from the comfort of your home with yoga, pilates, and other classes. Choose from 100 to 150 instructors based on your preferred type of workout, time of day, and demeanor of the trainer.

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